Soccer coach trying to take back child-porn guilty plea

A Coal City soccer coach and fire-department paramedic described by his former attorney as a "community hero" is attempting to rescind his guilty plea on federal child pornography charges, in part because he wasn't wearing his glasses when he entered the plea.

Investigators were led to Timothy Scholtes after they found his name and login ID — "boypleaser" — on Florida servers used by a child pornography Web site in 2008, according to the criminal complaint. His former attorney said in court that the site was an undercover sting run by the Department of Homeland Security.

Authorities then found more than 100 illegal images on Scholtes' computer, records show. They also found a document he apparently wrote that describes sexually assaulting players on his team, records show.

In October, Scholtes pleaded guilty in federal court before Judge Robert Gettleman to two counts of receiving child pornography on his computer and one count of enticing a minor to engage in filmed sexual activity in 2007.

Scholtes was acting as a chaperone when he allegedly photographed the penis of a boy in the back seat of his vehicle during a trip to a minor-league baseball game, a prosecutor said in court, according to a transcript of the plea hearing.

He was not charged with sexually assaulting anyone.

After pleading guilty, Scholtes, who is being held in the Kankakee County jail, fired his attorney. His new attorney, Gerardo Gutierrez, compared the October plea hearing in a filing last week to the rushed final round of the television show "Jeopardy!"

Gutierrez acknowledged it will be "extremely difficult" for Scholtes to withdraw his plea but argues the judge failed to properly determine Scholtes understood the charges he faced before accepting it. Scholtes cannot read without his glasses and did not have them on the day he made his plea or when he met with prosecutors to discuss the case weeks before, Gutierrez said.

Prosecutors in a court filing countered that Scholtes fully understood the charges, did not need his glasses because everything was done verbally and is now simply suffering "buyer's remorse."

Scholtes also was charged in Grundy County last year with indecent solicitation after allegedly propositioning a boy on his soccer team who refused the advance. Grundy County State's Attorney Sheldon Sobol said the charge was dismissed pending the federal case's outcome.

Among the challenges Scholtes faces in rescinding his plea are his own words.

"There is times I've sat in my cell and wondered, ‘Did I do this?'" Scholtes said at his plea hearing, according to a transcript. "And I've just blocked it out and don't remember doing it. I don't know, sir. The only thing I can say is that I did it."